Renault Duster : Official Review

This is a discussion on Renault Duster : Official Review within Official New Car Reviews, part of the Team-BHP Reviews category; Whoever booked this car, are you getting the colour you booked. In Chennai, I was told because of the demand ...

You lucky fella! By the way, when did you book your Duster? It appears the TVS dealer in Calicut is prompt in updating the situation. My chappie in TVS, TVM is yet to respond y.

I booked my vehicle around 2 months back. My booking was 10th. Im getting early since the spec and colour which i booked is available.Tvs seems to have changed a lot. The whole lot of old staffs are changed. I remember how was the situation during mahindra dealership.

Has anyone got the jump seats installed... what about the status on RC as 7 (or 5+2) seater? Because if it is registered as 5 seater on RC, 2 jump seats in the boot will definitely invite challan, if not impounding of the vehicle.

gto did you try an emergency stop while test driving duster? how would you rate its brakes as compared to your sunny?

The brakes are MUCH better than my Sunny (with ABS & EBD). There is no comparison. Also, we stood on the brakes at ~90 - 100 kph and she stopped in a straight line. The same situation in a typical Tata or Mahindra UV would have me saying my prayers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aditya101

For sake of comparison based on price point: The Vento-H TDI is around 50K cheaper than the Duster 85BHP-O. The additional features in the Vento are:

Now if Renault really wanted to eat into C2 sedans market share, then they should have priced it cheaper by at least 50K. My assessment is that the manufacturer is bound to reduce the prices or offer more features in due course.

Not just the features. With the Vento, you get more power & torque, quality and much more over the Duster. The list runs long. I insist that you should buy an SUV *only* if you really need it. Else, sedans usually blow equivalently priced SUVs away on most parameters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by h.s.r

IMO comparing Duster Interiors with Vento or Fluidic Verna is like comparing Fortuner with Superb.

Which many buyers do BTW. Remember, cross-shopping across same price vehicles (irrespective of body style) is common in India.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thunderlover

Test drove both, the 85ps RXE and the 110ps RXZ(O).

Nice review. You said in 300 words what I took 6,000 for .

Especially agree with you on the ride quality. There isn't a vehicle this side of 30 - 40 lakhs that rides like the Duster.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil Roy

Back in the 80s there was a music video of the song by Michael Jackson called Liberian Girl. Cant help but comparing the wait for Delivery of Duster to the search of Michael Jackson in that Video.
"WHERE IS THE DUSTER?"

The first lot of customer Dusters were expected to reach dealers in the last week of July. Thus, the earliest deliveries can only be expected in the 1st week of August.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampere

I got to drive the 85 ps one today. Since I have not driven the 110 ps version,
I could not detect any strain in the engine. Cabin was very silent. (I guess I am comparing it to my current drive).
From that point of view, I was very impressed. And as many mentioned, once you get used to the quirks, its good.

As expected. The Duster 85 should perform about the same as a Nissan Sunny + 1 hefty passenger onboard (to make up for the ~100 kilo weight difference).

Quote:

Originally Posted by thalavoy

Whoever booked this car, are you getting the colour you booked. In Chennai, I was told because of the demand for brown shade, dealer is playing some game and trying to push other colors :(

It's hard for any manufacturer to plan the production of an unusual colour right. Such colours are either extremely popular (leading to shortage) or complete duds (and thus, excess inventory).

I insist that you should buy an SUV *only* if you really need it. Else, sedans usually blow equivalently priced SUVs away on most parameters.

These are actually golden words. Riding in the city or sometimes on highways with a high seating position and road presence should not be considered as the only criteria for buying a suv.
Thanks nik_kapur for the pictures, bull bars are very essential specially on Indian roads. Wonder how long would it take for the accessories to come to India.

Not just the features. With the Vento, you get more power & torque, quality and much more over the Duster. The list runs long. I insist that you should buy an SUV *only* if you really need it. Else, sedans usually blow equivalently priced SUVs away on most parameters.

Pardon me, but I wont completely agree with the above statement. Yes power, torque & interiors quality do form an important criteria, but they don't constitute the whole package. If I go for a sedan then:

Do I get a higher seating position in the Vento (read sedan) compared to Duster (read SUV)?

Do I get ample ground clearance, to take the mighty humps or back breaking potholes with aplomb?

Do I get big, fat, chunky tyres & wheels to take any road or go where virtually no road exists?

Can my family of five with their holiday luggage travel for hundreds of kms in a day confortably & feel refreshed at the end of the day?

Can my aging parents enter & exit the sedan multiple times in a day without breaking their back?

If the answer for all of the above questions is a big "NO", then I am sorry to say, but I won't go for a sedan. Duster or a similarly priced/sized SUV comes as a boon for me.

p.s: If my above comments do not deem fit in this thread then please feel free to move it to the appropriate thread. Thanks

Sorry but I guess you missed the bold part of GTO's post as I have quoted. The points you mentioned are exactly what someone should buy an SUV for. If you need them you have to buy them.

If you are someone who does not mind low slung seating of a Sedan(mind you many people prefer that to the high seating of a SUV), dont have too many old people at home who would frequently travel in the car, wont really be travelling out on to the hiterland, you would be better off with a sedan.
Comfort is subjective, I for one love the well planted ride and dynamics of a sedan vis a vis an SUV and would chose a sedan just for that and the low slung seating, if I did nt have other factors to take care of.

Thats exactly what GTO has mentioned buy and SUV only if you need it (needs as mentioned by you).
Else on most ''other'' factors, similarly priced sedans look way better than the SUV counterparts

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

Not just the features. With the Vento, you get more power & torque, quality and much more over the Duster. The list runs long. I insist that you should buy an SUV *only* if you really need it. Else, sedans usually blow equivalently priced SUVs away on most parameters. .

As per Overdrive, Duster has crossed 10000 bookings. We Indians are a frenzied lot. Same thing was seen for the XUV before it fizzled out in favour of Duster. So Duster seems to be ruling the roost, till the next competitor (read Ford Ecosport, Chevrolet etc.) launches something in a couple of months.

Have to admit that the suv'ish car is a dapper. Saw a Mettalic Woodland Brown on the road recently and it just looked fab, much better than the Yeti in flesh.

^^^ These days anything launched in market is a hit... be it films like Cocktail, Rowdy Rathore, KSCHH, & so on. What do you expect the good cars' booking numbers to be, especially when there are wanna-bes & me-toos, who just want to show off their financial status rather than actually understanding the merits/ demerits of any vehicle.

Moreover, speculative booking has become a hot trend to earn a quick buck, especially after Fortuner & XUV500 launch.

I bet we would definitely see some cases of transfer of allotment in next few days.

For those who are confused on the Sedan vs SUV thing, my personal view is that though Sedans offer more features, better specs. than similarly priced SUV's but that literally doesn't translate into "Sedan is more VFM". SUV's may be short on features/specs but make up with structural rigidity, weight, bigger tyres, etc. Also I feel Sedans are a complete misfit in Indian driving context. For our streets, either a Hatch or an SUV/MUV bits the bill better.

Sedans are merely Hatch + boot. We do not require that boot so often, its just that people equate sedans with affluence here(maybe abroad too). Otherwise a hatch almost everything a sedan can do. SUV/MUV's & that too smaller ones add the versatality of handling our poor roads & offer superior view of the road ahead. Mind you the roads here are not built for speed, they are built for potholes, pedestrians, cattle, water, etc. I see hatches or SUV's faring better on such conditions. Do also take into account that we Indians are still very-very new to the "nuclear family" concept, therefore seating 5 or more is a routine.

Specifically on Duster, its dimensions are well suited to our road conditions but it lags behind in other key areas. Renault would have done good if they hadn't skimped on essential safety kit & some better ergonomics. These things don't cost much but make the vehicle whole lot more desirable.

Couple of friends of mine who had booked the Duster prior to launch, pure speculatively, cancelled the booking post launch. We can argue here that the best-seller from Maruti i.e. Swift/Dzire also come without safety kit in lower varinats but still set the sales charts on fire, so why crib about Duster! Guess Renault being a new entrant into the arena, needed to set precedents of sorts to gain mileage in the competitive arena. Moreover the vehicle's pricing is such that it falls bang into the territory of some very well equipped cars. So, expecting more form the vehicle at this price point is natural.

Coming to me, I could buy this vehicle say after a year. Can buy it right away but would like to see how Renault fares in a.s.s. & spares availability & costs. Also maybe by then Renault manages to iron out some ergonomic disasters & adds safety kit to the lower variants because base & 2nd variants appeal to me most. 3rd/4th variants fall bang into Innovas, XUV's territory & I will prefer Innova eyes closed.

Dkaile I agree with you on the frenzy thing. But do remember both XUV and Duster are good products in their own terms. XUV being a very competitive and good looking SUV priced very competitively and Duster here being a game changer as in providing a modern new Compact SUV at these prices. So the frenzy is somewhat justified I guess. Good thing for the Indian customer too as new product offering new values come up.

I for one just cant wait to see what the Ford Ecosport and the mini Xylo bring to the table.

Eagerly waiting for a word on the Petrol Duster too. Thats the one I m interested in as I do hope in time Renault would offer safety features in Petrol too atleast as an option.

Not just the features. With the Vento, you get more power & torque, quality and much more over the Duster. The list runs long. I insist that you should buy an SUV *only* if you really need it. Else, sedans usually blow equivalently priced SUVs away on most parameters.

+1 to that. In our market where everything is compared as a tick against the respective feature, even a C class sedan or a hatch will have more ticks than the duster. I think people are giving more importance to " only if you need it " rather than "most parameters" which was what our GTO was trying to say.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

The first lot of customer Dusters were expected to reach dealers in the last week of July. Thus, the earliest deliveries can only be expected in the 1st week of August.

Ahem. Aren't both the same. The last week of July is indeed the first week of August, at least for 2012. This was the same query which I posed to my SA when he gave me the August first week delivery schedule sales pitch, and I must say he was flummoxed.
Now, everytime my SA spots me, he hurries to his Senior. Talk about escalating the level of service.

Am not sure, but I saw a black (or brown) Duster with registered TN plates on the Poonamallee - Guindy road @ 7.30pm today. Have any one got it yet? Or is it some Renault official going somewhere (like people have seen Tata Storme in proper registration plates)